What both panicked Republicans and exultant Democrats must keep in mind is that when in power, the differences between the two parties are mostly illusory. Republican and Democrat are simply two different factions of the same ruling party, and their congressional battles are primarily over political spoils, not political ideology. This is why a "conservative" president will immediately tack left upon taking office, while a "liberal" president will tend to move to the right. We've seen this with Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43, so there's no reason to expect a massive difference between the previous administration and the current one.

And after eight years of experiencing regular pain between the shoulder blades, conservatives can enjoy the prospect of the knife sticking out of liberal backs.